The Winters City Council took two strides towards ensuring city projects get closer to completion by approving the city’s list of priorities as well as making a request for a key employee to continue working with the city at its May 2 meeting.
City Manager Kathleen Trepa recapped that council members previously met in March to discuss and identify goals and priorities, which were then compiled by city staff into the list presented to the council for their approval.
“During that goal setting,” Trepa explained, “staff presented information from the major functional areas, police, fire, community development and public works. The council reviewed the six focus areas that had been previously adopted earlier in 2021” with the focus areas being “fiscal stability, community development and placemaking, community engagement and transparency, economic development, organizational excellence, and environmental sustainability.”
Trepa presented to the council all the active projects on the city’s docket related to these focus areas and based on their priority to the council members, the full list of which can be found on the city council May 2 meeting agenda packet (beginning on page 54) which can be accessed on the city of Winters website at https://tinyurl.com/3md97esc.
Mayor Bill Biasi summarized the work the council had done in arranging this project list, saying “we went through all these items (Trepa) mentioned tonight and the council voted on ranking them either priority 1, priority 2 or priority 3, and that’s where that priority ranking came from, so we’re going to focus on all the priority 1s as much as we can first.” Trepa noted that if grant funding presents itself for a priority 2 or 3 the city may take it, but otherwise “we will be focusing in order of priority.”
Biasi noted that the list is “ambitious” and the city likely won’t be able to get to all of them as much as the city would like to.
CalPERS request
The council also approved a request by the city for CalPERS to waive their 180-day waiting period so the city can hire a retiring annuitant working on the Senior Center Project.
Colleen Brock has been working with the city on organizing and managing grant funding related to the Senior Center Project, while also working other jobs, including at Yolo Housing Authority and CalPERS. Brock has been a key part of the Senior Center Project without whom the project may be unable to move forward, as she is the only one with knowledge regarding a specific copyright dispute keeping the project static. She has recently ended her employment with CalPERS, and is now willing to work with Winters as a retired annuitant part-time to continue on the Senior Center Project.
But, as Trepa explained “CalPERS…has a requirement that retirees wait 180 days before accepting interim or extra help assignments from a CalPERS agency. The city can request an exception to this 180-day waiting period, as supported by a resolution from the City Council.”
“Yolo Housing doesn’t have anyone of Colleen’s experience on staff anymore,” Trepa said, “so they’re not able to provide services that they provided previously, and they’ve also indicated that they are slowly getting out of the business of providing regional services, which leaves the city with finding a way to manage its grants and keep this project moving.”
Thus, city staff requested the council to make a formal request of CalPERS to waive the waiting period so Brock can continue her work with the city right away.
The $4.3 million grant funding Brock is helping organize will expire next June unless the city requests an extension from the grant provider, but an extension can only be made once construction has begun. Without Brock’s assistance for 180 days, the city may not meet that deadline. However, Trepa said that, with Brock’s help, staff are “confident that we can continue to move the Senior Center Project forward, I’m confident that we’ll be able to get it done within the time allocated.”
The council approved both the strategic initiatives and the CalPERS request.
